John A. Lamon IV

One company-building belief I’m very strong on is that founders should own sales until at least ten million in revenue. I see a lot of people rush to hire sales early because it feels like the right move, but in reality it creates distance from the most important signal in the business. Sales drives everything, and when the founder steps out too early, momentum slows. If AMZ Prep® hadn’t been founder-led on sales, I genuinely believe it would have taken us two or three times longer to get to ten million in recurring revenue. Being in the deals compounds learning, sharpens positioning, and forces clarity across the company. There’s no substitute for that early on. Dropping out of sales too soon is one of the easiest ways to stall growth.

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One thing Mark Roberge said on our latest podcast that I keep thinking about: Your sales reps might only be spending 15 hours a week actually selling, honestly we had the same realization last year when we audited our team's time at Captivate Talent The rest is CRM updates, research, prep, pipeline reviews, admin, all the stuff that somehow became part of the job..... And let's not forget about old-school windshield time for those outside sales reps Mark calls it "selling time." And his point was pretty simple. What happens if AI gives a good rep another 10 or 15 hours a week to actually sell?!? You don't need a better territory. You don't need a new comp plan. You don't even need a rainmaker to carry the teams quota. You just give them more time doing the thing you hired them to do. A rep managing 20 opportunities can maybe manage 40. 1+1 suddenly can = 3 A lot of sales teams are still looking at AI (or a "growth hack") to try to replace people vs maximize them. The bigger opportunity might just be giving them their week back. I encourage everyone to listen to this great conversation Danielle Messler had with Mark Roberge from Stage 2 Capital on Human-First. Link will be in the comments!

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Three things I'm NOT doing in 2026: 1. Chasing referrals that never come 2. "Building relationships" that never convert 3. Waiting for the "right time" to prospect Did all three in 2025. Revenue was a roller coaster. Here's what I'm doing instead: Outbound every week. No exceptions. Targeting companies showing active hiring signals. Following up until I get a clear yes or no. Referrals are great when they happen. But they're not a strategy. Outbound is predictable. Referrals aren't. 2026 = systems over hope. PS - If you want to book 4-8 meetings with hiring managers who are actively looking for candidates every month, book an appointment through the link at the top of this post.

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If your 1st AE didn’t work out then here’s the hard truth: You probably set them up to fail. I see this repeatedly every week and it costs early stage founders huge chunks of their runway. And I think the real reasons founding AE hires don’t work out come down to 3 things: 1. You didn’t run a proper search You hired the best available out of a few people you met. For a hire this critical that’s a huge mistake. Founding AEs are rare, they are not just sellers. You need a way to find and attract them. Most really underinvest the time needed here. 2. You didn’t onboard them properly A quick overview of the company and then getting to start selling is not onboarding. You get 1 shot to onboard them well and it will pay off in months to come. 3. You don’t know how to manage them Most founders haven’t been in a proper sales environment so they default to being hands off and outsourcing everything to the new hire or being too reactive. And neither works. You need to learn how to manage great founding AEs first. My advice? - Treat this like your most important hire (it is..) Define the profile, run a real process, and don’t compromise because you’re in a rush. - Build a basic sales foundation before they start You don’t need perfection having a v1 playbook will help form the onboarding plan. Something they can build from so they aren't starting from zero. - Stay in the trenches with them Join calls with them, run daily stand ups, weekly pipeline reviews, coaching sessions, work on outbound together - Learn how to manage sales Track the leading indicators, coach them and create the structure so they can build. Get the process right and the same hire is set up for success. Get it wrong and you’ll keep repeating the cycle.

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Chewy has an 80%+ repeat purchase rate. In a category where switching takes 30 seconds. No loyalty points. No tier system. Their strategy: go out of their way to make every customer feel remembered. The portrait.  Random customers receive hand-painted portraits of their pets.  No trigger. No purchase required. One portrait generates hundreds of posts and a customer for life.  Zero ad spend. The sympathy card. When a pet dies, a handwritten card arrives.  Sometimes flowers.  A full refund on unopened food, without being asked.  Chewy shows up at the worst moment, not just the transactional ones. The identity. Breed, birthday, preferences, all remembered.  Emails don't say "Dear Customer."  They say "Hi, Bailey's family." You feel like a person, not a transaction. Most brands spend thousands building points systems their customers ignore. Chewy spent it on humanity. One handwritten note generates more loyalty than a year of discount emails. When did your brand last make a customer feel genuinely remembered?

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Sales Recruiting Market Update Struggling to level up to Enterprise Sales? Start focusing on your specific vertical. It’ll pay off in the long run. #salesrecruiting 🦘

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I ran two interviews with founders of Retail Index 2025 companies yesterday. Some really thought provoking thinking....more on that later... the highlights and interviews are on their way. Both conversations led to a discussion about what PE like call founder transition. A concept that many founders find troubling. There’s a pattern I’ve seen again and again. Founders start with energy, conviction and a clear vision, but as the business grows, that same drive can become a bottleneck. I call it the hero trap. The belief that no one else can possibly do things as well as you. It’s understandable. After all, it’s your name, your capital, your sacrifice, your ego (ahem - forgive me!) on the line. But I’ve seen too many brilliant founders burn out trying to do 20 jobs at once, afraid to delegate, and slow to build the leadership infrastructure that true scale requires. At some point, every successful business must grow beyond its founder. Not away from them, but through them. Leadership isn’t about doing everything yourself. Instead, leadership is about creating the clarity, culture and guardrails that allow others to thrive. That transition, from ‘hero’ to leader, is what separates the good from the great. What was so interesting about yesterday's interviews was the fact that; two people in very different sub sectors were taking, two very different approaches to leading their businesses through the next stage. What was common was that both had transitioned from being founders to being growth directors - focusing on what really mattered in terms of scale. It proves that whilst many suffer the 'hero trap' there are people learning to let go, trust, and build teams that can carry the vision forward. PS. You can download the full Retail Index 2025 (for free!) for more insights and stories from the UK’s fastest-growing retailers. Link in comments👇 PPS. The photo is a bookstore that might have been there since the start of time 😉 but what a joy to have well worn, cherished buildings hosting personal libraries of the future. I am keenly aware there is a campaign to get people reading again. This half term - Please Please Please - take a child (it doesn't need to be yours) to a bookshop and help them to see that imagination starts in the head not on a tablet or Chat GPT.

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PE-backed CPG doesn't want a good hire. It wants a bar raiser. Amazon coined the term. PE firms live by it. On a 3-7 year clock to exit, there's no room for someone who needs 90 days to find their footing. No room for someone who wears one hat. No room for someone who flinches under pressure. And here's what most candidates don't realize: the bar raiser standard starts before the first interview. I can't submit a candidate to a PE-backed CPG company if their resume is poorly written. Not a pass, not a "we'll work on it." An immediate disqualifier. Because if they can't communicate their own experience with precision, how are they going to walk into a room with a PE operating partner and hold that conversation? The candidates who thrive in PE environments aren't the ones from the biggest companies. They're the ones who owned their whole lane at a scrappier brand, built something, and can prove it. At a Fortune 500, you can be a cog. In a PE-backed CPG brand, there's no room for cogs. The people who get into PE-backed environments and then never want to leave? They're not surprised by the pressure. They were built for it. In PE, the bar isn't high. It's the whole point. #CPG #PrivateEquity #CPGrecruiting #PEbacked #TalentStrategy #ConsumerPackagedGoods #executivesearch

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The most expensive mistake in a product launch often happens long before the first ad runs. It starts with product categorization. I have worked with DTC brands that paid 12 percent more in tariffs for years because the wrong HTS code was selected at the beginning. The number looked small on a single shipment. Over multiple containers, it compounded into tens of thousands of dollars. In most (if not all) cases, no one flagged it. Suppliers focus on manufacturing. Freight forwarders move cargo. 3PLs handle fulfillment. Margin ownership sits with the founder. That's why Day 3 of the Unboxed Weekly welcome series gives you the Product Categorization Guide. This is a step-by-step walkthrough to make sure your next launch doesn't start with a hidden cost. This alone has saved brands $20K+ on their first container. New subscribers will get this on Day 3. Plus 7 more tools across the 7-day series. Link in the comments.

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